Key results from the 10-week London pilot:
- More than £100,000 of products recovered and returned to shelves
- 55% increase in crime prevention rates
- 80% reduction in incident reporting time, from around 25 minutes to under five
- Improved identification of repeat and cross-retailer offenders
Asda is rolling out Auror, a crime reporting and intelligence platform, across the retailer’s entire store estate following a successful trial in 30 London stores.
The pilot delivered significant improvements in how retail crime is reported and prevented, helping colleagues identify repeat offenders more effectively and focus security resources where they can have the greatest impact.
Auror is a software platform that consolidates information on crimes committed in stores, to help colleagues, retailers, and the authorities to quickly identify repeat offenders, detect patterns, and report security incidents.
The platform streamlines the process of building, managing, and resolving cases by bringing all relevant data into a single source, enabling organisations to focus resources on tackling the most prolific offenders.
During the trial, CCTV footage relating to serious incidents and theft was reviewed by specially trained colleagues before being uploaded to the platform. This was then combined with reports from other users to support investigations and wider crime prevention efforts. No live facial recognition technology was used as part of the trial or the subsequent rollout.
The rollout comes amid continued concerns around retail crime and violence affecting shop workers across the UK. The latest BRC Annual Crime Survey reporting that retail workers faced an average of 36 violent incidents involving a weapon and approximately 1,600 incidents of abuse or violence per day in 2025.
Auror’s UK retailer data shows repeat offenders are driving the high levels of threatening and violent behaviour towards colleagues – with 10% of offenders responsible for 70% of all retail crime, and those same repeat offenders are up to four times more likely to be violent or use a weapon.
David Lepley, Chief Operating Officer at Asda, said: “Rolling out Auror across our estate will further strengthen our ability to prevent and tackle retail crime. The results from our London pilot demonstrated the value of having a faster and more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real time. By working more closely with police and retailers through a shared intelligence network, we can focus our efforts where they will have the greatest impact and help to tackle retail crime.”
Mark Gleeson, General Manager UK and Europe at Auror, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Asda to our strong network of like-minded retailers who are all committed to keeping frontline retail colleagues safe and taking on retail crime together.”
“It’s fantastic to see retailers like Asda unite to take a stand against the top 10% of offenders causing 70% of retail crime and take back UK’s high streets. Auror has made it 80% faster to record crime for Asda colleagues and early pilot results saw the team identify dozens of prolific repeat offenders, with the majority known to offend at stores owned by other retail brands within the Auror Network. This is why the network effect is key to getting on top of this problem.
“Retailers are working more effectively with police than ever before through digital collaboration. This is helping them surface the true scale of offending, understand and respond to risk across their estates, and focus their precious resources on those repeats, organised, and violent offenders – creating safer stores for all.”
This trial follows significant investment by Asda into protecting its colleagues and customers. Asda has invested over £90m in the last two years alone on a range of security measures, including body worn cameras, improved CCTV, security barriers, and other improvements.
* BRC Retail Crime Report: https://brc.org.uk/news-and-events/news/corporate-affairs/2026/ungated/hard-won-progress-on-crime-but-job-far-from-done/
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